Sherrill makes case for schools' money

One day before the Burke County Board of Education filed a lawsuit against the Burke County Board of Commissioners, Superintendent Rick Sherill was ready to deliver a last-minute appeal for the two sides "to work to resolve any disagreement and to protect our students, our teachers and our classrooms."

Sherrill never got the chance to deliver his message. The county commissioners, acting on the advice of their attorney, tabled the school board's request for a transfer of funds to support Central Office functions, senior staff, the board's own activities and the schools' legal affairs.

Both boards already knew the lawsuit was coming. They hit an impasse in negotiations four days earlier. A state statute gives the school board the power to sue for funds needed to operate the schools. The two sides' lawyers conferred about that earlier Tuesday. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday afternoon. It may be heard as soon as Aug. 17 in Superior Court.

But on Tuesday night, Sherrill — who gave The News Herald a copy of his prepared remarks — was going to say the lawsuits need to end.

"Can we stop legal expenses? Yes. It is in everyone's best interest to do so as soon as possible," Sherrill wrote. "The lawsuits, urging some to discredit the BOE (board of education) through SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, which operates the high schools' accrediting commission) and local budget disputes need to end if we truly believe that our focus should be on our children.

"Once we truly start acting in the best interest of children and mean it, and the two boards work together, then the attorney fees and expenses will cease. Tonight can be a good first step."

By "tonight," Sherrill meant action on the school board's request for so-called 6900 funds. The number refers to a series of line items in the school district's 2009-10 budget. Collectively, their function is described as administration, policy and public relations services. In fact, the items vary widely. The 6900 fund includes money for postage and Central Office supplies, $12,000 for membership in the N.C. School Boards Association, line items for legal settlements and legal fees, the $200-per-month "per diem" for each board member ($250 for the board chairman) and money for the board to recognize student achievements and retiring employees.

The county commissioners withheld the $363,800 from the school district's 2009-10 appropriation. The commissioners said the school board must ask for the money as it's needed and must justify the expense. Commissioners say they're exercising their statutory duty to oversee and ensure the appropriate use of the taxpayers' money.

Sherrill was going to speak to that very issue, had he been allowed to talk last week.

"With respect to the commissioners and to the BOE, it is felt that this funding has been withheld due to public comments concerning the resignation and settlement of the former superintendent and legal fees associated with SACS' accreditation and various lawsuits filed against the BOE," Sherrill was going to say.

"If the issue is proper supervision of expenditures, the board of commissioners already has exercised authority over school spending to the maximum extent allowed by North Carolina law," Sherrill was going to say. "…Our preference in order to more efficiently operate the school system, is to respectfully request that the commissioners approve our request to fully fund purpose code 6900."

If the county commissioners refused to go that far, Sherrill had prepared a second option: funding to support the 6900 functions through September.

In the meantime, the school district is tapping its fund balance — what Finance Officer Keith Lawson describes as the district's "savings account."

Sherrill also had something to say about why the fund balance is so low. He was going to explain that the state ordered the school district to "revert" $948,000 in state funds during the past year. Before that, though, the school board repeatedly tapped the fund balance (which held about $3 million in 2006-07) for other needs.

"A large sum of the fund balance was also used for the start-up and operation of Patton and Draughn high schools," Sherrill was going to explain, Patton opened in 2007 and Draughn in 2008. Each added more than $1 million to the school district's annual operating costs, according to Sherrill, "…without any increase in funding" from the county.

Much of Sherrill's presentation was less about the 6900 fund and more about the school district's past and continuing shortfall in local financial support from Burke County. The N.C. Public Schools Forum calculates — and recent U.S. Census Bureau figures confirm – that Burke County's per-pupil expenditures rank among the lowest 20 percent of all N.C. school districts. The Census Bureau's recently published "School Finance Report: 2007," says Burke County Public Schools' total local financial support (including money from court fines and forfeitures) ranks 40th among the 115 N.C. public school districts. Burke County Public Schools then was the 28th-largest district in terms of student enrollment.

"It is fact that per-pupil funding at the local level averages $1,705 statewide and that of the seven surrounding counties Burke County is last at $982 per-pupil funding," Sherrill wrote. "We do not regard being in last place for education funding as something to be proud of. We can and should do better."

However, Sherrill was not going to ask for a huge increase in local tax support; only for the 43 percent of local ad-valorem (property tax) revenue a working group of school and county representatives recommended in 2008.

If the commissioners appropriated a full 43 percent of tax revenue in the coming year, and made up the difference to 43 percent for the two preceding years, Sherrill was going to say, "We could return all of our classified employees, to include teacher assistants, back to a full work week (and) we could also return approximately 10 percent of all teacher supplements that have been reduced."

To save money in the coming year, the classified staff (including custodians and maintenance workers and clerical staff) is expected to work 37.5-hour weeks. The teachers agreed to take a 50 percent cut in their local supplemental salaries to help save fellow teachers' jobs that otherwise would have been cut because of anticipated cuts in state financial support."

Looking farther into the future, however, Sherrill said Burke County citizens and their schools have many financial needs, including facility improvements at the aged George Hildebrand, Oak Hill, Icard, Mountain View and Rutherford College elementary schools.

"Burke County Public Schools needs your assistance!" Sherrill wanted to say. "It is imperative that we work to appropriately fund our schools. … We certainly have many important issues that need be resolved. If we do not work together and find solutions to school issues, we are only hurting our children and our teachers."